Entrepreneurship, Solution To Unemployment.

Hello lovely readers of K.A.D Concepts and welcome to another epic edition of an informative and educative piece. By the way, do you know any young graduate or able man or woman looking for a job? Ok, so that bring us to Ghana where we have an association called the Unemployed Graduates Association.

These are young men and women who are willing and able to work and contribute their quota to the economic development of the country but do not find suitable paid jobs. Which means unemployment is a major challenge confronting us as a nation. But that’s even aside the business of the day. What do you think the youth can resort to in order to uproot the chronic disease of unemployment in Ghana?

A renowned writer once said, “All our dreams can come true if we have the courage to pursue them- Walt Disney. So I ask the youth of today, what are our goals, ambitions or aims that entrepreneurship can not get us to accomplish. By the way, entrepreneurship according to the business dictionary is the capacity and willingness to develop, organize and manage a business venture along with any of its risks in order to make a profit and the most obvious example of entrepreneurship is the starting of new businesses.

So with this definition I ask myself, why are we doing this to ourselves as youth, waiting on the government to secure a job for us while we have acquired so many knowledge and skills in various disciplines in our tertiary institutions? What you need to realize is that no government will ever start or establish you in a business but you.

According to the Minister for business development, Dr. Mohammed Awal Ibrahim, 120,000 students graduate from tertiary institutions annually with only 100,000 being able to get jobs in the public sector. This means the rest of the 20,000 students must fend for themselves at all cost regardless of the means. This could even lead some to many social vices out of frustrations. So once again, if a part of these 20,000 people were entrepreneurs, won’t they if nothing at all be able to employ their colleagues and other relatives without jobs to spare the government of the burden of providing jobs which do not exist?

Yes we are the government’s responsibility due to the mandate we have given him but it takes more of our personal efforts to get what will really make us fulfil our dreams. So tell me, where will the likes of Dr. Osei Kwame Despite (Despite Group of Companies), Nana Appiah Mensah (MenzGold and Zylofon Media), Mr. Roland Agambire (AGAM Holdings and Rig Communications) and those whose livelihood depended on them be now if they had not taken that bold step? This shows that the best way to help our unemployed selves is to employ ourselves through entrepreneurship.

Perhaps I should take you through some basic relevant steps to start a small business; since entrepreneurship is a major way of solving societal problems, the first thing to note is to identify a need in the society. By this I mean you should look at what is needed by the people. Secondly, check if there are people offering those goods or services. If there are, check what can be added to what they are doing that will make the product unique should you produce the same thing. And don’t be in a rush to start big but little and better than they do it.

Also, consider your market trend to make sure what you are going to produce is in the interest of majority of people and finally segment your market by targeting a particular group of people to help you produce at their taste, preference and quantity to avoid any significant lose. This will eventually lead you to maximize consumer satisfaction and profit in order to expand your business gradually. And don’t forget the risk of entrepreneurship before you think of quitting because it’s not an option. This means you should put yourself in the shoes of the likes of KFC who really suffered before becoming what it is today. Trust me; if these basic things are in place, you are good to go.

Entrepreneurship is also characterized by innovative ideas and if that idea is even not feasible due to financial setbacks, still hold on tight to it. This is because it’s what will one day make it get to the global market as one of the lucrative ideas. For example, before Apple started with their iPod, Sony Walkman was in existence. But it took more than 10 years as they discovered and produce what Walkman was deficient in. So no idea is bad if only it is feasible by considering the cost, importance, innovation and above all interesting and life changing features of it.

Apart from unemployment, the said growing economy of Ghana is suffering from sanitation to corruption, devaluation to depreciation and inflation to poverty all contributing to our low standard of living. Our system of capitalism goes with the ideology of the survival of the fittest. And that means one can’t survive on just a job looking at the above mentioned predicaments couple with economic dependency in our economy.

A statistical representation of a total dependency ratio is 73 percent, with youth dependency of 67.1 and elderly dependency ratio of 5.9 with only 17.1 percent of potential support for these dependents as a few fends for themselves as at 2015. Since that is the case even till now, don’t you think it will be of grp0eat benefit if those in the public sector also focus on entrepreneurship? This will in turn create multiple sources of income not only to fend for the dependents but also to create more avenues for them to have a means of livelihood. This will reduce poverty which will also improve our standard of living as a people. Hence it will be advisable to have two to three careers or have our primary sources of income from entrepreneurial business.

At this juncture, I say entrepreneurship is the only solution to unemployment in Ghana. And I’ll urge no one to ever think of associating themselves with unemployed associations instead of choosing a better option as entrepreneurship.

This author has authored 1 publications on Modern Ghana. Author column: KelvinAppiahDonsah

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